Southwest Archaeology Today (SAT) is a free e-mail news digest providing subscribers with information about current news and events in Southwest archaeology. Published weekly, SAT is maintained as a community networking tool for professional and avocational archaeologists in the American Southwest and Mexican Northwest.

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2011 Pecos Conference Website is Live
The website for the 2011 Pecos Conference of Southwestern Archaeology is now live. It includes information about the conference location, amenities, and the presentation submission form. If you are not planning on camping with us, please visit the Notes and Accommodations sections soon to plan your hotel stay. Early Registration and Vendor Registration will open about April 1, so please make sure to periodically check the website for new information. The conference will be held at Mile-and-a-half Lake on the Arizona Strip, August 11-14. Individuals and organizations interested in assisting in the organization as partners, sponsors, or vendors may contact David Purcell at davidepurcell@gmail.com. http://www.swanet.org/2011_pecos_conference

Bills Under Consideration by New Mexican Legislature Threaten Cultural and Historic Preservation
No place in the United States is more resonant of the earliest history of our nation than New Mexico. With its irreplaceable places such as the World Heritage Site of Chaco Canyon and the ancient settlement at Acoma Pueblo, few states have captured the popular imagination more than New Mexico. Still, the unique heritage and the future of preservation in New Mexico is being threatened like never before. Bills introduced in the House and Senate will undercut the work of the Cultural Properties Review Committee and the established process for nomination of future sites to the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties. Most of the impetus for these proposed changes stem from narrow interests who see New Mexico only as a place for mineral extraction. http://my.preservationnation.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=44824.0&dlv_id=34741

Researchers Find Evidence of Paleolithic Seafarers off the California Coast
Evidence for a diversified sea-based economy among North American inhabitants dating from 12,200 to 11,400 years ago is emerging from three sites on California’s Channel Islands.Reporting in the March 4 issue of Science, a 15-member team led by University of Oregon and Smithsonian Institution scholars describes the discovery of scores of stemmed projectile points and crescents dating to that time period. The artifacts are associated with the remains of shellfish, seals, geese, cormorants and fish. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110303141540.htm

Vandals Shoot at Mesa Verde National Park Entry Station
Vandals with guns caused more than $2,000 in damage at Mesa Verde National Park early Thursday morning, according to the National Park Service. Shots were fired at the park’s entrance station sometime during the late evening or early morning hours, officials said. http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/27081675/detail.html

Hohokam Irrigation Systems Predate Today’s Farming in the Gila Basin
Long before the city of Coolidge was established the Gila River Valley flourished with then inhabitants the Hohokam Natives. The Hohokam culture was the way of life in this area from approximately 300 B.C. to 1450 A.D. when the tribe up and left the area, and the remains of their presence, in the dust. The reason for their move is still unclear but resulted in the name Hohokam, which is a Tohono O’odham word that translates into ‘those who have gone.” http://www.trivalleycentral.com/articles/2011/03/04/coolidge_examiner/news/doc4d6d77a4ec030286907884.txt

Archaeological Field School, Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, Arizona
Northern Arizona University, Arizona Strip District of the Bureau of Land Management and the Kaibab Vermilion Cliffs Heritage Alliance announces the fourth season for the field school of archaeology in the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, north of the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona. The field school will be directed by Michael O’Hara through Northern Arizona University from May 30 – June 24, 2011. Students will learn about surveying, excavating, mapping, artifact analysis, and cultural resource management. One of the sites where excavation and research will continue is West Bench Pueblo, a Late Pueblo II (A.D. 1050-1200) Virgin Anasazi village on the Colorado Plateau. Research will also continue at sites on and near Two Mile Ranch, where the field school students and staff will be housed. The field school is in a remote and highly scenic area near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. To apply or for more information, contact “Michael O’Hara” <ohara@asu.edu>. See more information at http://www.public.asu.edu/~ohara/2011fs.htm.

Volunteers Help Stabilize Great Kiva at Homol’ovi
Even though Homolovi Ruins State Park has been closed to the public, members of the Arizona Archaeological Society have continued working to make sure the pueblos remain intact. Last fall, about 18 volunteers from around the state, as well as Winslow and Holbrook, spent two week-ends at the park shoring up ancient walls. http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/27081675/detail.html

Reminder – Homol’ovi Reopens as a State Park on March18th
The Hopi Tribe and Arizona State Parks invite the public to attend the Park Re-Opening Celebration on March 18, 2011. Gain insight into the cultural perspectives, lifestyle, language, celebrations, and history of the Hopi Tribe and learn about visitor etiquette on Hopi lands. Planned activities include lectures, pottery firing demonstrations, and traditional Hopi social dances. Take an archaeological tour of pueblo ruins built by various prehistoric people, including ancestors of the Hopi people, between approximately 1260-1400 AD. http://www.pr.state.az.us/Parks/HORU/index.html

Three Great Trip Tips for Arizona Archaeology Month
Anyone who spends any time in the Arizona outdoors learns that the state has a long, rich history of human occupation. Every March, the state celebrates that tradition with Archaeology Month, when state and federal parks invite you to learn more about the past through tours, lectures and guided hikes. Here are three of our favorite activities this month.http://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/wp-admin/post.php?post=9878&action=edit&message=10

Arizona Archaeology Month Event Calendar
Archaeology events all month long, all throughout Arizona! This Listing of Events is sponsored by the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), Arizona State Parks, and the Governor’s Archaeology Advisory Commission. http://azstateparks.com/find/arch_calendar.html

Dry Lake Shows Evidence for Southwestern Megadroughts
There’s an old saying that if you don’t like the weather in New Mexico, wait five minutes. Maybe it should be amended to 10,000 years, according to new research. In a letter published recently in the journal Nature, Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers and an international team of scientists report that the Southwest region of the United States undergoes “megadroughts” — warmer, more arid periods lasting hundreds of years or longer. More significantly, a portion of the research indicates that an ancient period of warming may be analogous to natural present-day climate conditions. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110228183853.htm

Historic Account of the Successful Germination of Ancient Seeds from Cliff Dwelling
In this year leading up to Arizona’s centennial, on Feb. 14, 2012, we’ll reprint a story each day from the Arizona Daily Star or Tucson Citizen archives. – March 5, 1912 – About 12 years ago, Sharlot M. Hall, who for years past has been the official historian for Arizona, while making researches in the prehistoric ruins of the Aztec cliff dwellings in the Verde Valley, near Camp Verde, found a partially crumbled wall, disclosing an aperture in the rear of one of the chambers. http://azstarnet.com/special-section/az-at-100/100-years-ago/article_105a0b45-9834-57d4-9571-ca1e9aeb1dd0.html

Conference Announcement – Cultural Heritage Film
In conjunction with our eighth annual The Archaeology Channel International Film and Video Festival, The Archaeology Channel Conference on Cultural Heritage Film will promote discussion and Collaboration regarding the uses of cultural heritage film. TAC Festival and Conference will bring to Oregon the world’s best films on archaeology, ancient cultures, and the world of indigenous peoples. You can download the registration form (PDF or Word). You can send e-mail correspondence (inquiries or registration forms) to onference@archaeologychannel.org. Papers on applications of film (academic, cultural, practical, educational) will be considered for Conference presentation. There will also be open discussion of Festival films. The goals of this conference are three-fold: (1) to promote the creation, distribution and use of cultural heritage film as an influence for broad cultural awareness and understanding; (2) to bring together educators, film-makers, archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, journalists, historic preservationists, environmentalists, geographers, and others interested in cultural heritage and its connections to the natural environment; and (3) to encourage the exchange of new ideas and approaches to employ film for the common good of all humanity. http://www.archaeologychannel.org/content/TACfestival.shtml

Lecture Opportunity – Cave Creek
Archaeological Society (AAS) is proud to have one of its own members as their featured guest speaker. Doss Powell, a bioarcheaologist and faculty member at Paradise Valley Community College, will show photos and discuss his latest findings on March 9, 2011 at the regular chapter meeting held in the Community Building of The Good Shepard of the Hills Church, 6502 E. Cave Creek Road, Cave Creek. The meetings begin at 7 p.m. and are free and open to the public. Doss has entitled his program, What’s For Dinner? He has been working in the Mimbres, New Mexico area since 2006 and is comparing the subsistence patterns of two very different environmental settings during the Late Pithouse Period – one located near the Mimbres River and others that settled on further upland environments. The Mimbres culture thrived in the Southwest from AD 750-1130, with settlements along major river valleys in southeastern Arizona, and along the Gila, Mimbres and Rio Grande Valleys in New Mexico and Texas. http://www.sonorannews.com/archives/2011/110302/communitynews-Archaeology.html

Step into the Ancient Subterranean on the Archaeology Channel

Every so often, a chance discovery opens a new door into the human past. This happened recently in Missouri, when a farmer found a hole in his field that led into a hidden subterranean world. You can visit that world in Footsteps into the World Beneath, the latest video feature on our nonprofit streaming-media Web site, The Archaeology Channel. Six hundred years ago, humans, black bears, and mountain lions were inhabiting a Missouri cave. When the entrance collapsed, everything was trapped inside, creating a time capsule not to be discovered until a small hole in the ceiling exposed the cave in 1985. In this 30-minute documentary by Emmy-winning director Christian Cudnik, rappel 65 feet into the darkness and follow cave archaeologists as they document prehistoric footprints, rock art, torch marks, bear tracks, and much more in this cave north of Springfield, Missouri. http://www.archaeologychannel.org

Thanks to Cherie Freeman and Adrianne Rankin for contributing to this week’s issue of Southwestern Archaeology Today